October 06, 2008
Bring it on, Bob!!

Bob Dylan's leftovers make a fine meal on new CD 'Tell Tale Signs'

There had never been anything quite like Bob Dylan in the 1960s, and there's nothing quite like him today.

Once he burned with revolutionary fervour, songs spilling out of a man in a hurry. Now, at age 67, he's a walking history book of the United States, keeping alive stories and musical styles that might otherwise be forgotten. His work has grace and majesty, and the breadth of his late-career resurgence is better illustrated in this collection than on any of his individual albums.

"Tell Tale Signs" is a two-disc set spanning the years 1989 to 2006, part of the ongoing official "bootleg" series of alternate takes, unreleased tracks, random live recordings and overlooked soundtrack material.

Songs are never quite done with Dylan. They're living organisms, subject to rewriting and recasting. The "Time Out of Mind" rocker "Mississippi" is here in two versions, each dramatically different than the one eventually released - a solo acoustic take and one where the band sounds adrift on a Southern summer afternoon.

Some of the alternate takes sound better than the versions already known, like "Most of the Time," freed from the shackles of a confining producer. Some don't - the rockabilly version doesn't dignify "Dignity." All are fascinating peeks at creativity in progress.

Lyrics often change and for the unreleased songs, sometime appear in later material. They leave you wishing that this well-conceived package included a lyric sheet.

Dylan also leaves you shaking your head at songs somehow left on the cutting room floor, like the gorgeous "Red River Shore" or the adventurous "Dreamin' of You."

The set closes with the stately beauty of "'Cross the Green Mountain," a mostly-forgotten song written for the soundtrack of a Civil War movie. It sends shivers, both for the music and precisely written lyrics true to the times. The song is reminiscent of "Every Grain of Sand," another Dylan hymn tucked away, barely noticed, in his vast catalogue.

For Bob Dylan, these are outtakes. Most musicians would call them their greatest hits.

Check out this track: A live version of "Ring Them Bells" is an example - and there are many - of a Dylan song that improves from the recorded version after time spent with them on the road.

Posted by Dan at 11:20 PM
I will happily read this!!

Hot commodity Tina Fey lands book deal

Fresh off recent wins at the Emmy Awards as well as a trio of brilliant cameos on Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey is now set to tackle her first book.

Little, Brown Book Group confirmed on Monday that it has signed a book deal with the award-winning comedian and comedy writer.

Though the publisher did not reveal any financial details, nor the book's subject matter, New York media has been buzzing about the deal for about a week.

Last week, the New York Post had reported that the deal was in excess of $5 million US and that, rather than a memoir, the project was reportedly a non-fiction collection of humour essays.

The 38-year-old SNL alumna is riding a tidal wave of acclaim for her pitch-perfect parodies of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, on the venerable late-night sketch show.

Last month, she and her sitcom 30 Rock — in which Fey stars as the head writer of a sketch comedy show — scored four Emmy Awards, including its second consecutive win for best comedy series, an award for comedy writing and best comedic actress and actor trophies for Fey and Alec Baldwin.

After three weeks portraying Palin in sketches on Saturday Night Live, it's expected that Fey will continue in the role until the U.S. election on Nov. 4.

The new season of 30 Rock begins Oct. 30.

Fey's other credits include writing and appearing in the film Mean Girls and starring in the film Baby Mama.

Posted by Dan at 11:16 PM
The show is getting better, but another year?!? I think it is time to just call it quits!!

'Entourage' Earns Another Season

Vinny Chase and his boys will continue living the Hollywood dream for at least one more season.

HBO has picked up "Entourage" for a sixth season, meaning Vince (Adrian Grenier) will have that much more time to rebuild his fallen star image. Production on the new season is scheduled to begin early next year, with episodes scheduled to air during the summer.

"'Entourage' is that rare phenomenon in TV: a smart, sharp comedy series that continues to evolve," HBO Programming Group chief Michael Lombardo says. "[Creator] Doug Ellin and his remarkable team consistently deliver a show that's must-see viewing."

The show has undergone something of a creative revival this season after a fourth year that had a lot of critics down on the show. Early episodes this fall have focused on Vince's efforts to rebuild his career after the disastrous "Medellin," while his friend and manager Eric (Kevin Connolly) tries to expand his business.

Jeremy Piven, who plays Vince's shark agent Ari Gold, recently won his third consecutive Emmy for the role.

"We're thrilled to be back for another season," Ellin says. "HBO has been amazing in allowing the show to grow and mature. I never imagined when we started that we would make it to six seasons."

Posted by Dan at 11:07 PM
I still listen to their CDs, but they no longer provide the soundtrack to my life...but there used to be days when they did.

Is Oasis about to 'Dig Out' another breakthrough?

A dozen years ago, a Rolling Stone cover trumpeted "Oasis have conquered America, and they won't shut up about it."

The British band has lost some U.S. ground since 1995's (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, but they're still mouthing off.

That breakthrough album sold 3.9 million copies, seven times the combined U.S. sales of the group's last three studio albums. The dip is surprising because Oasis is the best rock band on the planet, its singer says.

"I don't say that for the sake of saying it," Liam Gallagher says. "There are other good bands. They're not as good as Oasis."

If seventh effort Dig Out Your Soul, released today, doesn't light up the charts, Oasis will compensate with receipts from a U.S. tour starting Dec. 3 in Oakland.

"It's funny that it seems Oasis is under the radar in the U.S., since they're one of the very few British rock bands able to fill arenas here," says Spin editor Doug Brod. "Oasis will never sell millions of records like they once did, but then very few artists will."

Slumping CD sales inspire artists to test unconventional distribution, yet Oasis, proudly old-school in its artistic approach, is leery. The band did stream Dig on its MySpace page last week, and Liam says he'd consider marketing innovations "as long as it's not selling out, and we don't look like a bunch of desperados."

But the notion of giving away music "doesn't sit right with me," he says, branding Radiohead's tip-jar sale of its In Rainbows download a publicity stunt. "This is my living. It costs me to make it, and it's going to cost you to buy it. If they won't buy it, I don't want them as our fans."

His guitarist brother, Noel, isn't distressed by piracy losses, which he figures siphon 25% off industry profits.

"That's what was spent on Champagne and limos," he says. "It's good when record companies panic. They need to streamline. Just like these big banks going under, and those Wall Street idiots driving Ferraris. What about people who had a hurricane rip apart their community? That's real pressure, my friend."

He prefers to leave business decisions to his manager.

"If he told me to sign with Timbuktu, I'd do it," says Noel, recalling recent business meetings "so mind-numbingly boring that you'd want to kill yourself. I look after choruses. That's my job."

A month ago, Oasis began whipping up excitement with single The Shock of the Lightning and a string of Canadian dates. And suddenly, a different bolt.

"I remember singing the chorus of Morning Glory and then I was in a heap on the floor," says Noel, who'd been assaulted onstage during a Sept. 7 concert in Toronto. "I can't remember seeing the guy. I had a bad pain on the left side of my chest. I couldn't stand up. I thought I'd been stabbed."

Initially treated locally for severely bruised ribs, Noel was diagnosed in London with broken ribs. The tour was halted, and it resumes tonight in Liverpool.

"I'm a bit down in the dumps and pretty spaced out on painkillers," he says. "Two ribs broke at the spine, so it's almost like a broken back. They can't manipulate them into place until they've healed. Another four weeks. It's taken the wind out of my sails."

The attack "freaked me out," says Liam, who attempted to tackle the assailant. He's less sympathetic now. "It could have been a lot worse. He'll live. It's mostly in his head now."

The Gallagher brothers' onstage harmony and offstage bickering have filled England's music press since Definitely Maybe arrived in 1994.

"Liam still takes the rivalry thing a bit seriously," says Noel, 41. "It's real with him. I do tend to annoy him a great deal. I don't mind that. When we get off tour, the last thing I want is to have dinner with Liam, after having dinner with him 365 nights. I've got another life outside Oasis. We're not 21 anymore. We're not The Monkees."

They're in rare accord on this.

"We haven't got a relationship, only musically," says Liam, 36. "I think he's a great musician. He thinks I'm a great singer. Do people want us to hold hands and walk in the park and have little coffees?"

The pair also share a high regard for their seventh studio album, which is earning critical raves, including "the most begrudging positive review I've seen in my life, from a magazine (The Observer) that notoriously despises Oasis," Noel points out.

Though U.S. sales have eroded, the band has maintained a solid reputation for Beatlesque guitar pop and Who-sized hooks and defiance, newly cemented by Dig's melodicism and dense psychedelia.

Oasis "may not have the current artistic cred of, say, Radiohead, but you can't underestimate their appeal as a classic-rock act," Brod says. "Their first two albums are masterpieces and they've recorded songs, such as Live Forever and Wonderwall, that are now part of the rock canon. What shocked me the last time I saw them — headlining Madison Square Garden a couple of years ago — was that the crowd was full of college students who were (kids) during the band's heyday."

An atheist, Noel is at a loss to explain Dig's multiple religious references.

"I don't believe any of the stories in the Bible, but I do like the imagery," he says. "I wish there were people with wings living in the clouds. But I don't see the hand of God anywhere."

Noel, who wrote six of Dig's 11 songs and is sitting on another 30 demos and finished tracks, says he's eager to release a solo album, provided Liam and guitarists Gem Archer and Andy Bell also pursue outside projects. (The band's fifth member, drummer Chris Sharrock, replaced Zak Starkey in May.)

"The others would have to agree, and that's not going to happen," he says. "They cry, you see."

Liam counters: "Let him do one. He's a big boy. It's not in my blood. I want to be in a band. I don't aspire to be a Robbie Williams."

Nor does he compete with Noel's songwriting output. "I write if nothing's on TV," says Liam, who contributed I'm Outta Time, Ain't Got Nothin' and Soldier On to Dig. "I get my kicks singing."

Besides, free time has grown scarce in both households now that parental duties encroach on their rock 'n' roll lifestyles. Liam rises at 6 a.m. for a run before taking his kids to school.

"There are other things in my life besides Oasis, like that big pile of ironing," he says. "But once I'm on that stage, let's go, man. Let's ram that music down people's throats. I haven't changed a bit."

Being a dad "has changed my life outside of the band profoundly," Noel says. "It hasn't changed my work in any way. But when I'm bored in a hotel, I get my videophone out and look at my children and wish I was playing cops and robbers with them.

"I used to listen to music all day every day in my formative years. That time goes out the window. Show me someone who listens to Pink Floyd, I'll show you someone who doesn't have kids."

Though hardly homebody teetotalers, the Gallaghers have calmed down since their feral '90s, when Noel wrote the band's early albums under the influence of cocaine.

"Our lives were very boring," Liam says. "Obviously, if you take drugs to make music, you're an idiot."

These days, the two make more headlines spewing toxins than ingesting them. Noel in particular infamously blasts peers, most recently James Blunt, Mark Ronson, Keane, Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs, whom he dubbed "fat idiots."

"I've said worse and lived to tell the tale," he says.

He has been especially vocal lately about troubled Rehab singer Amy Winehouse.

"She's probably dying as we speak," he says. "That girl is a mess, and the people around her are vampires. Solo artists are easy prey. When we were at the height of our drug problem, we had each other to say 'It's gone too far.' She has no one."

Before anyone can accuse him of sympathy, he cracks, "I was never a fan, to be honest."

Posted by Dan at 11:04 PM
I wanted to be there!!!

Bruce Springsteen Inspires Voters With Passionate Acoustic Set at Philadelphia Rally

On Saturday, Bruce Springsteen kicked off three days of Vote For Change concerts on behalf of Barack Obama with a powerful acoustic set that drew estimated 50,000 to the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. Cutting a distinctly Woody Guthriesque profile in rolled up flannel, denim and tousled hair, Springsteen stood atop a 30 foot high stage emblazoned with the word “CHANGE” and belted out a seven-song, 45 minute acoustic set as a gift for Obama volunteers and a catalyst for the disengaged to register to vote.

“I’m not Barack Obama, but I’ll do my best,” said Springsteen, before wheezing his harmonica like an angry freight train launching into a tense, jingle-jangle reading of “The Promised Land,” his 1978 affirmation of faith in the ideal American in a time of dwindling opportunity and diminished expectations.

Four songs later — including a like-minded “The Ghost Of Tom Joad,” the obligatory “Thunder Road” and the rarely-heard “Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?” — Bruce spoke humbly about why he believes in Barack Obama. “I’ve spent most of my creative life measuring the distance between that American promise and American reality. The distance between that promise and that reality has never been greater or more painful. I believe Senator Obama has taken the measure of that distance in his own life and in his work. I believe as president, he would work to restore that promise to so many of our fellow citizens who have justifiably lost faith in its meaning.”

After a mournful rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” Springsteen sent the people back out onto the streets with marching orders to take their country back from “those who who would sell it down the river for a quick buck.”

Set List:
“The Promised Land”
“The Ghost of Tom Joad”
“Thunder Road”
“No Surrender”
“Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?”
"Speech"
“The Rising”
“This Land Is Your Land”

Bruce Springsteen’s Speech:

“Hello Philly,

“I am glad to be here today for this voter registration drive and for Barack Obama, the next President of the United States.

“I’ve spent 35 years writing about America, its people, and the meaning of the American Promise. The Promise that was handed down to us, right here in this city from our founding fathers, with one instruction: Do your best to make these things real. Opportunity, equality, social and economic justice, a fair shake for all of our citizens, the American idea, as a positive influence, around the world for a more just and peaceful existence. These are the things that give our lives hope, shape, and meaning. They are the ties that bind us together and give us faith in our contract with one another.

“I’ve spent most of my creative life measuring the distance between that American promise and American reality. For many Americans, who are today losing their jobs, their homes, seeing their retirement funds disappear, who have no healthcare, or who have been abandoned in our inner cities. The distance between that promise and that reality has never been greater or more painful.

“I believe Senator Obama has taken the measure of that distance in his own life and in his work. I believe he understands, in his heart, the cost of that distance, in blood and suffering, in the lives of everyday Americans. I believe as president, he would work to restore that promise to so many of our fellow citizens who have justifiably lost faith in its meaning. After the disastrous administration of the past 8 years, we need someone to lead us in an American reclamation project. In my job, I travel the world, and occasionally play big stadiums, just like Senator Obama. I’ve continued to find, wherever I go, America remains a repository of people’s hopes, possibilities, and desires, and that despite the terrible erosion to our standing around the world, accomplished by our recent administration, we remain, for many, a house of dreams. One thousand George Bushes and one thousand Dick Cheneys will never be able to tear that house down.

“They will, however, be leaving office, dropping the national tragedies of Katrina, Iraq, and our financial crisis in our laps. Our sacred house of dreams has been abused, looted, and left in a terrible state of disrepair. It needs care; it needs saving, it needs defending against those who would sell it down the river for power or a quick buck. It needs strong arms, hearts, and minds. It needs someone with Senator Obama’s understanding, temperateness, deliberativeness, maturity, compassion, toughness, and faith, to help us rebuild our house once again. But most importantly, it needs us. You and me. To build that house with the generosity that is at the heart of the American spirit. A house that is truer and big enough to contain the hopes and dreams of all of our fellow citizens. That is where our future lies. We will rise or fall as a people by our ability to accomplish this task. Now I don’t know about you, but I want that dream back, I want my America back, I want my country back.

“So now is the time to stand with Barack Obama and Joe Biden, roll up our sleeves, and come on up for the rising.”

Posted by Dan at 11:09 AM
PAYING TRIBUTE TO PAUL NEWMAN'S 10 BEST PERFORMANCES!!

NEWMAN’S OWN

It's difficult to pick out just 10, but here are some of the greatest roles and scenes in Paul Newman's long career:

1 CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958) Newman received his first Oscar nomination playing Brick Pollitt, an alcoholic ex-football player who resists the advances of his beautiful and frustrated wife Maggie while staying at the Mississippi plantation of his dying father, Big Daddy (Burl Ives).

Best scene: Newman's performance manages to suggest Brick's feelings for a deceased former roommate in this heated exchange. Maggie: "You know what I feel like? I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof." Brick: "Then jump off the roof, Maggie. Jump off it. Cats jump off roofs and land uninjured. Do it. Jump."

2 THE HUSTLER (1961) Newman entered the first rank of American actors with his portrayal of pool shark Eddie Felson, who challenges Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). Newman was nominated for Best Actor twice for this role, winning his only acting Oscar for reprising it 26 years later in "The Color of Money."

Best scene: After defeat at the hands of Fats in the Big Apple, Eddie moves to Kentucky, where he hooks up with a sleazy gambler whom he allows to maul his crippled girlfriend (Piper Laurie). One of the most powerful moments comes when Eddie discovers her lifeless body; she's slashed her wrists. Realizing what he's lost, a chastened Eddie returns to New York for a climactic match with Fats.

3 HUD (1963) Newman's charm and appeal to audiences allowed him to go to darker places than earlier Hollywood leading men. He received his third Oscar nomination as the unregenerate heel Hud Bannon, who pursues the flirtatious housekeeper ( Patricia Neal) at the family's ranch.

Best scene: "The only question I ever ask any woman is, 'What time is your husband coming home?' " brags Hud. The scene where he breaks down her door still has the power to shock.

4 HARPER (1966) Newman re-invented the detective movie as an LA private eye. He reprised the role in "The Drowning Pool" 10 years later.

Best scene: Without a line of dialogue, Newman and screenwriter William Goldman establish the character before the opening credits are over. Harper wakes up in his office, where he has fallen asleep with the TV on. Trying to make coffee, he discovers he's out - and fishes used grounds out of the wastebasket. The look on his face as he digests his first cup is priceless.

5 COOL HAND LUKE (1967) In arguably his signature role, Newman copped his fourth Best Actor nod as Luke, a rebellious chain-gang prisoner. His nemesis, The Captain (Strother Martin) is inspired by Luke to utter one of the most famous lines in movie history: "What we've got here is .. . a failure to communicate."

Best scenes: Besides a bare-knuckle fight with another prisoner named Dragline (George Kennedy) and a much-imitated sequence of prisoners watching a woman washing a car, one of the best remembered has Luke eating 50 hard-boiled eggs while the other inmates bet on whether he can.

6 BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) Newman appeared in a number of Westerns. His most beloved cast him as the 19th-century outlaw Butch Cassidy opposite Robert Redford's Sundance Kid.

Best scene: While the courtship scene with Katharine Ross (scored to "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head") is famous, George Roy Hill's movie is renowned for the scene where after a lengthy chase our heroes are trapped by armed pursuers on a cliff high over a river. When Butch tells the Kid to jump, he protests he can't swim: "Are you crazy?" Butch replies. "The fall will probably kill you."

7 THE STING (1973) Newman's only Best Picture winner was a reunion with Robert Redford. Newman plays master grifter Henry Gondorff in 1936 Chicago, who agrees to help Redford's Johnny Hooker avenge the murder of his mentor by henchmen of racketeer Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw).

Best scene: To get even, they create a bogus horse-racing parlor where Lonnegan puts down a million-dollar bet on a phony race. During a police raid, Gondoff shoots Hooker, who supposedly set him up, and an FBI agent shoots Gondoff. After Lonnegan flees, it's all revealed as a sting to separate him from his money.

8 SLAP SHOT (1977) The most popular of Newman's sports-themed flicks casts him as Reggie Dunlop, the coach of a bush-league hockey team that doesn't taste success until they start getting violent.

Best scene: Most of Newman's dialogue was much stronger than anything being delivered by major movie stars during this era. Among his most printable remarks in heckling players, which got big laughs at the time: "Hey Hanrahan! Hanrahan! Hanrahan! Suzanne sucks p - - - y! Hey Hanrahan she's a dyke! I know, I know! She's a lesbian, a lesbian, a lesbian!"

9 THE VERDICT (1982) Newman aged more gracefully than practically any other star of his generation. He was pushing 60 when he received his first Best Actor nomination in 15 years for playing Frank Galvin, an alcoholic lawyer who grasps at redemption in a malpractice suit against a Catholic hospital.

Best scene: His finest moment comes in the jury summation, written by David Mamet: "In my religion, they say, 'Act as if ye had faith . . . and faith will be given to you.' If we are to have faith in justice, we need only to believe in ourselves. And act with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts."

10 NOBODY'S FOOL (1994) Newman scored his last Best Actor nod (he was nominated again, in support, as a mob boss in "The Road to Perdition," his final on-screen appearance in a feature) as another drinker, a small town ne'er-do-well Sully, who has a reunion with his now-grown son and grandson.

Best scene: This is one of Newman's all time-best performances in a career full of great ones. He's especially charming in scenes with his landlady, played by Jessica Tandy. But the best may be a quiet sequence where he puts his grandson on his lap and takes him for a ride in his old red pickup truck.

Posted by Dan at 11:06 AM
New Tunage - Yes, my friend, it is a great week for new CDs!!

New CD Releases, Oct. 7: Oasis, Bob Dylan, The Pretenders and More

Oasis "Dig Out Your Soul" (Reprise)

The British rockers are set to unveil their seventh studio album, which follows 2005's "Don't Believe the Truth." The first single from "Dig Out Your Soul" is the track "The Shock of the Lighting."

Oasis will support "Dig Out Your Soul" during a North American tour. The 11-date trek, which features support from Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, kicks off Dec. 3 in Oakland, CA.


* * *
Bob Dylan "Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8" (Sony)

The eighth installment of Dylan's ongoing Bootleg Series will feature previously unreleased studio recordings and alternate versions spanning the 17-year period from 1989 to 2006.

Previously unreleased songs on "Tell Tale Signs" include "Red River Shore," "Dreamin' of You" and "Marchin' to the City" from the "Time Out of Mind" sessions. The disc also includes "I Can't Escape From You," "Duncan & Brady," "Miss the Mississippi" and Dylan's first release of a Robert Johnson song, "32-20 Blues."

The set will be available as a standard two-disc version, as well as a deluxe, three-CD package, which includes a bonus disc containing 12 additional songs and a hardcover book of artwork from Dylan singles spanning his entire career.

As usual, Dylan will be making the rounds at concert venues this fall. The latest installment of his so-called "Never Ending Tour" is set to begin Oct. 23 in Victoria, British Columbia.


* * *
The Pretenders "Break Up the Concrete" (Shangri-La)

Vocalist Chrissie Hynde and crew return with The Pretenders' ninth studio album. The band's previous outing came with 2002's "Loose Screw."

The group, which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, has seen lineup changes over the years. Present and accounted for on "Break Up the Concrete" are guitarists James Walbourne and Eric Heywood, bassist Nick Wilkinson and drummer Jim Keltner.


* * *
Sarah McLachlan "Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan" (Arista)

The pop singer, who became a huge star as the organizer of the Lilith Fair festivals in the '90s, is ready to drop a greatest-hits set. "Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan" features 14 tracks from the vocalist's catalog, as well as two new songs: "Don't Give Up on Us" and "U Want Me 2." The latter was released as a single last month and it managed to break into the Top 20 on Billboard's Triple-A chart.


* * *
Tim McGraw "Greatest Hits Vol. 3" (Curb)

The third installment in the cowboy crooner's best-of series features studio versions of such fan favorites as "Back When," "Do You Want Fries With That," "Angry All the Time" and "Let It Go." It also includes live versions of the songs "Real Good Man" and "If You're Reading This."


* * *
More new releases:
Antony and the Johnsons, "Another World" (Secretly Canadian)
Casting Crowns, "Peace on Earth" (Reunion)
The Clash, "Live at Shea Stadium" (Sony)
Genesis, "Genesis 1970-1975" (EMD)
Jolie Holland, "Living and the Dead" (Anti)
Margot and the Nuclear So and So's, "Not Animal" (Epic)
Jon McLaughlin, "OK Now" (Island)
Gary Moore, "Bad for You Baby" (Eagle)
Rise Against, "Appeal to Reason" (Island)
Marco Antonio Solis, "No Molestar" (Fonovisa)
Tesla, "Forever More" (Tesla Electric Co.)
Armin van Buuren, "A State of Trance 2008" (Ultra)
Various Artists, "WOW Hits 2009" (World Entertainment)
Rachael Yamagata, "Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart" (Warner Bros.)

Posted by Dan at 11:01 AM
This could be cool!

Coldplay Preps EP With Jay-Z Guest Spot

Coldplay will in November release an eight-song EP, "Prospekt's March," which will include a new version of the song "Lost" featuring rapper Jay-Z. Six of the eight tracks on the EP are new studio recordings, including "Glass of Water," which the band has been performing live of late.

The track list is rounded out by the Jay-Z version of "Lost" and the Osaka Sun remix of "Lovers in Japan."

Coldplay will begin a North American tour Oct. 20 in Ottawa, Ontario, in support of its latest Capitol album, "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends." The set is the second-highest selling U.S. release of 2008, according to Nielsen SoundScan, at 1.77 million copies.

Here is the track list for "Prospekt's March":

"Life In Technicolour II"
"Postcards From Far Away"
"Glass Of Water"
"Rainy Day"
"Prospekt's March / Poppyfields"
"Lost +"
"Lovers in Japan" (Osaka Sun remix)
"Now My Feet Won't Touch The Ground"

Posted by Dan at 10:54 AM